Collaborative Production Studio
During my final semester at Virginia Tech, I took a class called "Collaborative Production Studio" in which I worked with other students to make four short films/animations. We were free to use whatever medium we wanted, so I opted to work with a good mix of groups who worked in 2D, 3D, and live action. My job in all four was mainly rendering and compositing, but I additionally did some animation and asset creation in the first project, environment building in the second, as well as cinematography in the first three.
I don't think of myself as a "if you need something done right, do it yourself" type of person. I've met other artists with that mentality and it really annoys me. You don't want to share your craft with other people? You don't want ANY help on that big project you want to make? Shit man, I'll give you a hand if you want it. I think both visually and conceptually, all of these projects landed in a place that none of us would have found on our own. I am most proud of how we were able to make unique works that we could all be happy with. However, this class was open to anyone who was a sophomore or higher, so there was a wide range of skill levels and abilities. I hate to say I felt held back by my peers, because I loved working with them and they're all great artists in their own right, but I couldn't help but see where some of the projects fell short and think about what I could have done differently or better. But I suppose that's natural in an environment like this. I experienced the same thing when I started working for ICAT, and had to use assets the previous students left me with.
"The Depot": Recut
This was the first in a series of projects I made in 2021 where I revisit my films from high school to more closely match what I had in mind but wasn't yet skilled enough to make. For this project, I upscaled my footage using Video Enhance AI, and then composited it with environments I made in Unreal.
The original was an entirely improvised film I made with a couple friends for a 24-hour film competition. With the original, I was a dumb 17-year-old who didn't realize how negatively poor video compression could affect green screen footage, so I ended up with mostly unusable footage. This time around, I decided to use some of the footage I couldn't use the first time, so the original can still be its own thing.
Sea of Moscow
This project was meant to get me used to the workflow of making a cinematic in Unreal Engine 4. The animations and characters are from Adobe Mixamo, but I made my own textures in Substance Painter, using the originals as a base. My main focus in making this was the staging and camera work.
Beetel's Cavern
"Beetel's Cavern" was a project I made in 2019. The idea was that I could make a concept for a complicated 3D animation, and then actually make it once my skills had improved. I'm definitely capable now, so maybe it's something I'll consider finishing.
Original Concepts
Rough storyboards & Color Map
Polished Animatic
The Homeowner And The Roofer
One of my very early projects at Virginia Tech. We were instructed to write a story, and then turn it into a concept poster in Illustrator, an animatic, and a video all based on different scenes within the story.
A wealthy homeowner stepped out of his house one morning to discover a stranger approaching his front door. He introduced himself as “Chippus the Roofer” and complemented the homeowner’s house. He told him that if only the roof were a little neater, it could stand out even more. He then asked the homeowner if he would be interested in purchasing his monthly roofing service. He was skeptical until Chippus told him the first repair wouldn’t cost him a thing. “It’s on the house,” he said. With an offer like this, he could get his roof fixed up for free, then simply tell the roofer not to do it again. How could he ever turn that down?
Throughout the following weeks, the homeowner would get frequent compliments on his new roof, but the roofer was nowhere to be seen. Two months passed. Then four months. Then eight. Seven years had gone by and the homeowner had not even thought of the name Chippus the Roofer, nor did he question why his roof was always so neat.
One afternoon, his accountant approached him and told him he was too expensive for him. The homeowner just thought this meant that he had raised his rates, so he hired a cheaper accountant, and went about with his life. Eventually, however, the homeowner was left without any money at all, and before he even knew why, he was no longer a homeowner. He was nobody, living on the street, without the faintest memory of the man who did this to him: Chippus the Roofer.
concept poster (Adobe Illustrator)
Accountant Scene Animatic